Despite the fact that every major Internet provider has added some kind of encryption to its services over the past year, tracking your online traffic is easier than you think.

And you don’t have to be the target of the hacker or the NSA for your traffic to be intercepted. There is a hole in mobile security that could make tens of millions of Americans vulnerable.

Unsecure Wi-Fi networks have been a well-known vulnerability in the tech industry for years. They can let even the most unsophisticated hacker capture your traffic and possibly steal your identity. . . .

While attending a CLE event, have you ever left your laptop unattended? What if someone steals one of your mobile devices from your car or your home — or what if you inadvertently lose it in some way? Can someone else access your privileged client’s data? -CCE

Sure, maybe Chicago’s taxi seats are stickier than most, and perhaps the cold forces people into taxis more than in, say, Boca Raton, FL. The point is, you’re apt to lose a phone. And these days, with large amounts of data storage, functionality, and computational power on these things, that spells trouble for attorneys protecting client data.

Lest anyone think that hair-raising e-discovery sanctions opinions are a thing of the past, U.S. District Judge David Herndon of the Southern District of Illinois issued a blistering 51-page opinion (PDF) imposing nearly $1 million in punitive sanctions on the defendants in In re Pradaxa Products Liability Litigation on Dec. 9, 2013, and indicated that more sanctions are almost certainly on the way.

The case is an example of how electronic data discovery generally, and implementing legal holds in particular, can be fraught with peril.